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3 killed in Mo. church shooting

By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago

NEOSHO, Mo. - A gunman opened fire in the sanctuary of a southwest Missouri church Sunday, killing a pastor and two worshippers and wounding several others, authorities said.

One of the victims was the Rev. Kernal Rehobson, 44, who led the local congregation of predominantly Micronesian worshippers holding the service at the First Congregational Church, police said.

The other two victims were male members of the congregation, whose names were not released, The Joplin Globe reported.

About 25 to 50 people were briefly held hostage at the church until the gunman surrendered, Neosho spokeswoman Desiree Bridges said.

About four or five people were wounded, Police Chief Dave McCracken said, and several others who were injured fled the scene.

Rehobson was shot multiple times and was dead at the scene, Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges said.

Officials removed two covered bodies from the brick-and-white trim church into a waiting funeral parlor van Sunday evening.

"This is a terrible tragedy which was made worse by the fact that it happened in a peaceful place of faith and worship," Gov. Matt Blunt said in a statement.

The shooter was being held at the Newton County Jail, but police were not releasing any information about him. Bridges said he was related to someone in the church, but declined to elaborate. No charges had been filed Sunday, McCracken said.

McCracken said the gunman had two small-caliber handguns and one 9 mm semiautomatic machine pistol with a large magazine.

The shooting followed the 1 p.m. service, which was attended by about 50 people, ranging in age from children to the elderly. The church opened its doors to the group of worshippers from the Pacific islands that conduct a service in Spanish, said Patty Mendoza, 35, whose friend attends the service.

"There are a lot of islanders that come here," Mendoza said. "It's terrible. I can't imagine what it was about."

The gunman surrendered to authorities after about 10 minutes of negotiation.

"At the time that the rescue attempt was successful we had approximately 20 people in the sanctuary still," he said. "We had some people who escaped the crime scene prior to the police arrival that were wounded, and we had some people escape during the process and at the time of the rescue."

He said no one was injured during the arrest.

McCracken said he could not confirm whether the gunman was a member of the church. But he said an incident involving the suspect and a family that attended the First Congregational Church on Saturday night fueled the shooting Sunday.

"At this point though, we don't have any information more than that," McCracken said.

Calls to the church went unanswered.

3 killed in Mo. church shooting (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070813/ap_on_re_us/church_shooting;_ylt=Al5U5v4pOf2MNPeV2XtsEGms0NUE)

I have read this article, and it is really sad but, it has to deal with what's going on behind the scenes as known as the spiritual warfare that we face, but we can't really interfere because even in Revelations it says :

 Then he told me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy." (Revelation 22:10-11)

 So in order to fulfill this prophecy we have to not interfer with someone, all we can do is give them the Good News that we have been given, as well as the gifts through Jesus Christ. Yes, I know it is wrong, evil, and foolish, to do such a horrid thing, but God knows them intimately, and as long as sin is still here, there is going to be awful things to happen, but He will claim His people before all gets worse. So worse that no man on earth has every experienced. We are persecute, but we stand strong because of our faith. Yes it happened, but we should not fear what kills are bodies, but what can kill are bodies as well as are souls within us, Jesus has also said in the gospels, but still there are people that claim they are believers but they don't know who God really is

This is truly a tragedy.

I did have to look up what Micronesian was though.
And now I do not know what is sadder....the shootings or that people felt compelled to leave a beautiful pacific island region to go to Missouri!
talk about getting sick of the water :D

But I do believe that we should all pray for the families and friends and the community that was involved in this.